No real house price recovery likely in next five years

• 70% chance that real cost of a property will be less in 2015 than in 2007

• Second half of 2010 likely to see falling house prices

The inflation-adjusted level of house prices in Britain is likely to remain below its pre-recession levels for the next five years, one of the country's leading consultancies said today.

A report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) showed there was a 70% chance that the real cost of a property in 2015 would be below that in 2007 and a 50% chance that it would take until 2020 for the market to rise above its previous peak.